Musical Instruments Restoration #1: Bandurria Picolo

Quite a break for me… without post in the lj. I was just reading and viewing to be updated. Here back to same hobby.

Glad that the old musical instrument was taken cared by my late father in the province where i grow up. With the condition that is nearly beyond repair, made myself available to try restoring it. In return, the challenge is really interesting.

Bandurria is a spanish origin. The Philippines made a variation to make it 14 strings from original of 12.

The body

I have to make a new boards for both the front and the back. The best board is my seasoned jackfruit. I resaw with rip hand saw. I manage to plane and sand it. My thicknesser can only plane to 5mm thick therefore jackplane was the last result for roughing. Grinding with sandpaper is not enough. I used my barber’s razor as scraper. I tried with glass but it easilly becomes dull. The finished thickness is 1/8 ” and the brittleness plus the hardness of the jackfruit give me an exhausting effort.

The neck and the head

Actual neck and head can still be used. You can see that this is a solid piece with label face brown hardwood. I can not retrieve the fretboard so i make .

What is interesting is bending the wood. I thought bending wood is easy. I try steaming using the laboratory sterilizer but not sucessfull. It is just springing back to its original. Some of my try just breaks or splits. Finally, I was able to bend using a dry and nicer wood.

The reaming is also an entertaining way. I have to use a blow torch fo heating the plastic for bending

It looks very good so far Bert. I’m sure your efforts will be well rewarded when you complete the project and have a beautiful family heirloom. I know it is hard to make/restore something like this without special tools, but this will test your creativeness. Can’t wait to see it progress.

Just woke up n check my fellow lj who always inspire me… thanks..This is not the only one…there are more. Violin …. octavina…. another bandurria and a melodica… there is also century old piano. Actually the above sounds great when i was only 8 years old and i am already 56 today almost half century. God bless.